Canalsatellite or TPS?

dfrance

Member

I am moving to France shortly. I'm aware that the flagship public channels (France2, France3..) are digitally (satellite) available only via the payTV platforms Canalsatellite and TPS.

I appreciate any comments regarding these two systems. Which platform from your point of view is the better one? I am not concerned re Football and general sports channels, but would not mind to pay for good movie channels.

Is it correct that movie viewers have a choice between the French dubbed and the original language version?

E

eghamhigh

Regular Member

Just wanted to say that if you set up a dish pointing at 5W and had an analogue receiver you could get the French TV channels for free ie RTL, FR1, FR2 etc (not TV5 which has left this transponder). Apparently the analogue broadcast will not be turned off for quite a while (perhaps years) as so many French viewers only have analogue satellite receivers. You can pick up an analogue receiver (say a PACEMS100 or 500 for around 10GBP on ebay). Your tv needs to be able to receive secam (the broadcast method used in France) otherwise the pictures will be in black and white. Quite alot of UK tvs have secam circuitry as they are built for the whole of the European market.

If you are interested in only digital broadcasts then the Hotbirds at 13E have the digital transmissions of French TV. I get T*PS/Multi*vision and it is true that you can choose to listen to the original language version or the French dubbed via the audio settings on the satellite receiver. A Matrix Reloaded CAM (for example) can decode the T*PS/Multi*vision signals but you are dependent on updating the CAM with the new codes periodically. Unless you decide to pay for an original pay card, then you pay for what you get. Look at tps.fr (I assume you read French) and you can see the pay TV structure as there are different subscription levels.

I like TPS and enjoy watching the French movies. I don't always find something to watch though.

I have no experience of Canal+ but should imagine that they also offer the choice between French dubbed and original language.

S

Stephen W

Regular Member

Living in France for quite a long period during the early part of this century I subscribed to both Canal+ and CanalSatellite. The former was excellent for films (which if English or American could be watched in the original version) and for good documentaries, current afairs, news and sports. Canalsatellite gives you a whole range of both French and foreign channels (inc SKY news when I was there). I used my English tv which gave no problems in reception. I found the subscriptions very reasonable, certainly compared with the UK, for the value I received from the channels. The shop sent the installer when they promised and he had the whole thing up and running (including fitting a dish) within an hour or so.

Had no experience of TPS until I came back to the UK and got myself motorised. Having now watched some of their programming over the past year I would still go back to Canal+ if I had the opportunity. Hope this helps.

of course you can still access UK channels which are FTA, all BBC, ITV3 and a few others.... if you're down south you'll need a larger than average dish pointed at astra 2 28.2degrees East... if you get a $ky FTV card you can add CH4,CH5 and ITV2 to your list too.

having said that I mostly watch TPS these days! also i find the french swiss TSR1&2 channels offer quite good viewing too...

for FTA I have analogue at 5W TF1,FR2,FR3,FR5,Canal+,M6.... on digital Arte/Tv5 are FTA also on both hotbird and astra1 i think. RTBF (belgian) is FTA on astra1. there's lots out there!